Beard-loving Rays ace David Price is trying to smooth things over with the Yankees, days after saying he would not sign with the franchise due to its policy against facial hair.

“It probably wasn’t the best thing to say, but I didn’t mean anything by it,’’ Price said yesterday, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “I wasn’t looking to offend the Yankees. It’s probably the best organization in all of sports. Not just baseball, but all of sports. I didn’t mean anything [against] the New York Yankees.

“I can’t rule out anybody because, obviously, what they do for the game of baseball is just tremendous.”

The close shave stemmed from a recent interview with FoxSports.com, in which Price said of the Yankees and their long-standing scruff ban: “I wouldn’t sign a long-term deal there. Those rules, that’s old-school baseball. I was born in ’85. That’s not for me. That’s not something I want to be a part of.”

Price, the reigning AL Cy Young winner, is eligible to become a free agent after the 2015 season and is likely to become a trade candidate much sooner given the cost consciousness of the low-budget Rays. It sounds as if the southpaw’s agent got into his ear after his razor burn on the deep-pocketed Yankees, who are well positioned as suitors.

“I’m riding home and I checked Twitter and I was just like, ‘Whoa,’ ” said Price, who tried to spin his cheeky comments as love for free-spirited manager Joe Maddon and the Rays, who drafted him No. 1 overall in 2007. “I was talking about Joe. I was talking about the way we do everything over here. How he lets us be comfortable in our own skin.

“It’s not about going to a powerhouse, it’s about being comfortable where you play. That’s not a slap in the face to the New York Yankees. It’s about me.’’

As for the whiskers, Price said he’s keeping them “at least another year,” but 2016, after his turn on the open market, “is three years from now. My hair might fall out.”